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Destination Website: Drive More Direct Bookings with Visuals

This webinar will focus on several key elements to drive up those valuable direct bookings on your hotel’s website by showing you how to keep shoppers who arrive at your website engaged and motivated to make a booking directly with you.

Role of search Search engines know: Who you are? Where you are When you&apos;re interested What you want Why you care Will reward Content rich Context rich Keyword rich K-Link rich (c&apos;mon, had to do it) In a word, customer-focused. In other words, friction-free

Pictures tell stories- - In a time where people want information fast and at their fingertips copy is out, a photo, a video, and a friends recommendation is what is selling hotel rooms. - All of these social site are strong on photo content- Instagram is all photos &amp; now video

There are roughly 3,000 hotel rooms in the Cocoa Beach/Cape Canaveral area and our hotel group makes up 1/3 of those rooms. - Pretty good odds of us getting visitors of Cocoa Beach to stay at one of our hotels. - There is however around 663 miles of beach in Florida-and lest we not forget the Big Pink Elephant in Florida; Orlando and their attractions. - My number one job is how do I get guests to Cocoa Beach, and secondly keep them engaged so that they return. - We are using Stay Cocoa Beach as a sort of mantra, and with the hashtag to track social conversations.

We have vanity sites for all but one of our hotels. -They are in the process of becoming responsive sites, so that no matter what size screen; smart phone, tablet, or monitor, you can view all the information so that it is easy to read and navigate through. -Vanity sites allow you tell more of the story, and not have to stay to the structure of a brand site. -We can highlight our packages, especially our cruise packages and allow the site to have a visitor friendly feel. -What to do in the area, calendar of cultural and area events as well as photos and amenities of the property. And in big bold lettering on the front page click for Reservations (taking them to the brand site).

Like I mentioned before, it’s all about getting people to Cocoa Beach. -This January we implemented a blog at StayCocoaBeach.blogspot.com. -This has a couple of purposes, feeds content for our other social sites, show potential visitors what events are happening in the next couple of months, and is content for our email marketing to AAA Offices, Travel Agents, and newsletter content for people that have signed up via our vanity sites and social sites for our newsletter.

Social Media- It’s not all Cat’s &amp; Babies. - But cats and babies are the top 2 items shared photos on Facebook and important to remember when coming up with content. Make it fun- Make it shareable-That’s how you increase your fans-Who are the FANs of your Facebook page?- For a hotel most of them are past guests &amp; future guests -Fans are Fans and do not want to be sold to constantly -They want to remember their experience, they want to connect with the staff they loved and hopefully share with their friends and family. - Have a plan for social media- Worst thing you can do is have a site and do nothing with it. - Engagement with your guests is what social media is all about. -That being said it’s my suggestion that you respond to every comment that guests write, even if it is a simple Thank you. -Remember if they are on Facebook or other social sites they probably write trip advisor reviews, answer brand surveys and will recommend your property to their friends and family.

.) Some other suggestions for Facebook would be to utilize the cover photo space. -This cover space is a great place to announce new happenings, packages, specials -Have a feed for your Instagram and your tweets -Fangate when possible so they have to like your page to see the feed.

While constant selling should be avoided on social networks. - Have fun when you do offer specials. - Post photos of the font desk agent’s guests love, and the bartenders they raved about. - Make it a fun and great experience they want to share.

21.
A picture is worth a
thousand words.
The soul never thinks
without a picture. Aristotle
Napoleon Bonaparte
A picture is a poem
without words. Horace
Your purpose is to make
your audience see what you
saw, hear what you heard,
feel what you felt.
Dale Carnegie

27.
It’s a Wrap
►About Leonardo
►Invitations to upcoming webinars
● March’s topic is “Targeting Specific Customer
Segments”
● April is about “Leveraging Social Media for Hotels”
►Recording of this webinar
● Share it with your colleagues